Chapter 2: *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* When Stephanie awoke, she was laying on one of four platforms in a room filled with a strange, blue, liquid, but not water. It was... something else. She sat up and looked around. Jessica was on the platform to her left, still unconsious. She started to stand up, when she realised someone was standing above her. She jumped and backed away. It was a very handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes, who was wearing what appeared to be a green tunic. "Are you alright?" he asked Stephanie. She sat still for a moment before nodding and getting to her feet, with the help of Link. She was on the edge of the platform, and she felt very uncomfortable about it. She hated the water. She hated swimming. She hated the beach. Suddenly, a ball of shining, blue light came streaming out of Link's hat, leaving a trail of shining dust behind. Stephanie was so startled with this that she lost her balance and fell backward into the "water". She could be heard screaming as she tried to come to the surface for air. "Great, Navi. See what you did?" Link said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He dug through his bag of belongings until he found a blue tunic. A Zora's tunic. He dove into the water after her and pulled her out with ease. She gasped for air as she surfaced and was brought back to her platform. Link scolded Navi for startling her, while Jessica stirred. She rubbed her head, which was very sore, and sat up. Link had only just noticed this, and jumped from Stephanie's platform in the center of the room to the ledge surrounding the four platforms. He stood across the water, but in front of her. "Tacky clothes..." were the first words out of her mouth. Link looked down at his clothes and quicky turned away from Jessica so she wouldn't see how red his face was. "Jessica!" Stephanie scolded. "What?" asked Jessica innocently. Stephanie gave her a look that obviousely said, "Lay off him!" Jessica grinned widely. "Jessica, what's wrong with you?!?" Stephanie said. "I'm hungry and my head hurts," she replied. "Uh, I have some food in my bag, if you want any..." Link said, his back still turned to Jessica. "Why don't you act like a man and look me in the face?" Jessica said scornfully. Just then, something came flying toward Jessica's head. It was a shoe. Stephanie's shoe. "Ow, my headache was already bad enough!" Jessica yelled at Stephanie, and then shot her a look that said, "What did you do that for?" Stephanie jumped the from her platform to the ledge, where Link was still standing with his back turned to Jessica. "I hope you haven't forgotten that I am still hungry!" Jessica whined. Stephanie ignored Jessica and walked closer to Link to see if he was okay. He was fine, just a little embarrassed. Jessica continued complained about being hungry. "Is she always like that?" Link said to Stephanie quietly. "Only around guys she likes," Stephanie said cheerfully. "Oh great, I feel so special," said Link sarcastically. "Are you two even listening to me?" Jessica whined. "Uh, yeah, keep going!" Stephanie lied. Link gave Stephanie an amused smile. Stephanie returned it. "Hey, Stephanie, you can have your shoe back now!" Jessica yelled as she threw the shoe at her. It hit her with such power in the stomach that she almost fell backward into the water again. But Link caught her just in time. He stood her upright and handed her the shoe. "Um, thanks," she said quietly, the wind knocked out of her. "No problem," he answered. The way he caught her just in time reminded her of Spider-Man's early warning Spider-sense. Stephanie loved Spider-Man. She had memorised all twenty-seven of her comics. "You know, you could have let her fall. She can swim," Jessica commented jealously. "Not from what I saw," Link returned. Stephanie blushed, embarassed that she couldn't even dog-paddle. "Well... I'm still hungry!" Link was about to toss her a bag, when he said, "Well, I'm not sure I should give this to you. I don't want you looking inside at anything but the food..." "Why would I want to look at stuff that's so tacky?" Link turned bright red again and quickly threw her the bag. Jessica looked inside the bag and started examining its contents. "Oooh, what's this?" she said holding up a crystal with a red light in the center. Din's Fire. "Don't play with that!" Link and Stephanie both yelled in unison. Link jumped onto Jessica's platform and tried to get the bag and Din's Fire. "I don't think so!" Jessica taunted as she jumped onto the ledge near Stephanie. "Give that back!" Stephanie yelled at her. "But it's an accessory that matches my outfit so well!" Stephanie couldn't decide if she was being sarcastic or not... "I don't care, give it back! It doesn't belong to you!" "I know, it belongs to your boyfriend!" Jessica teased. Stephanie's face flushed redder than Link's Goron tunic, and she charged Jessica to try to get it back. They continued arguing and fighting while Link looked on, laughing ocasionally at a funny remark. Unbeknownst to him or the girls, Morpha rose out of the water behind Link. Morph grabbed him and started slinging him around, back and forth. Morpha threw him against a wall on the opposite side of the room as the girls, and looked around for his bag. Jessica was holding it, swinging it around sometimes while she was arguing. He tried to yell to her, but Morpha grabbed him again and threw him into another wall. Stephanie and Jessica continued fighting, unknowing of the fact that Link really needed that bag and its contents. Link was grabbed for a third time by the water-beast, but this time he was able to yell, "Help!" to the girls. They immediately stopped arguing, looked at one- another, and said in unison, "Omigod!" "I broke a nail!" shreiked Jessica. Stephanie rolled her eyes and grabbed the bag from Jessica. She tore it apart looking for the hook-shot. She knew what she had to do with it, even though she sucked at it... She felt her hand grab the hook-shot and she quickly yanked it out of the bag. "Navi!" Stephanie yelled for the little fairy in Link's hat. Navi instantly darted over to the nucleaus of Morpha, the part that was used for Z-targeting. Stephanie readied the hook-shot and took aim, hoping for the best. She fired and the nucleus was ripped from the water-beast. Link was dropped into the water and quickly surfaced. He got out his sword and started swinging it madly at the nucleus, which was pretty much ripped into shreds when he finished. Stephanie rushed over to him and asked, "Are you alright?" "I'm fine," he answered, but the expression on his face belied his words. "I spent four hours at the manicurist, and my nail breaks?!?" Jessica went on. Stephanie and Link both rolled their eyes. Link started putting all of his things back in the bag, after Stephanie ripped it apart, and handed Jessica some food, still not looking her in the eyes. Jessica took the food and asked, "What, no junk food?" Stephanie rolled her eyes again, while Link tried to figure out just what junk food was. After Jessica had eaten, neither Link nor Stephanie were hungry at the moment, they left the water temple. Stephanie stayed far away from the water, and often found herself with her back to the wall so that she didn't have to be anywhere near it. Link had to change the water level so that the water was far enough below them that Stephanie didn't have to worry about it. Too bad Jessica and Stephanie were both afraid of heights... Link used his hook-shot to get to the entrance of the temple, helping Stephanie across first, then trying to help Jessica, who wasn't cooperating, as usual. "Don't touch me!" she said to him. "You know, fine. You can just stay here," he replied. "Good," Jessica said while sitting down, arms crossed, as stubborn as ever. "Now what?" Link called across the platform to Stephanie, who was just dealing with the fact that they would have to swim to the surface, as the whole temple was under water. "I don't know..." she answered, peering over the edge of the water at the entrance. "I don't have time for this!" Link said, grabbing Jessica around the waist. He used his hook-shot to get back across to the entrance. Jessica was still pouting. "Uh, how are we going to get out of here?" Stephanie asked, hoping she wouldn't have to swim much, since she couldn't swim at all. "Swim, of course!" Jessica answered. Stephanie looked down at the floor. Link took Jessica to the surface first, she was still pouting, of course, and then came back to help Stephanie. He swam quickly with her to the top of the water and tried to hold her above it most of the time. Jessica was now sitting on the bridge, arms crossed. Stephanie and Link got there after a couple of minutes.